Biography

Flemish painter and draughtsman. He received his training as a painter from two of his uncles, Jacob Bol and Jan Bol. After two years in Heidelberg, he was made a master in the Mechelen Guild of St Luke. After the annexation of the city by the Spanish troops in 1572, Bol settled in Antwerp, where he became a master in 1574. A decade later he left Antwerp, arriving in Amsterdam after travelling to Bergen-op-Zoom, Dordrecht and Delft. Van Mander's statement that he was buried in Amsterdam on 20 November 1593 is disputed by some sources because of a supposedly signed Adoration of the Shepherds dated 1595. Bol’s most important students included his stepson Frans Boels, Jacob Savery and Joris Hoefnagel.